Spider-Man needs space (to prevent sensory overload)
by Camikazi
Summary: Peter had a stressful week and a new annoying machine tests his limits. The time 'Jim and Isaac from Shield' (made up) helped give Spider-Man a small bit of sensory overload. The team is generally helpful. Honestly, he just needs some space. And a nap. And a warm drink. (one-shot, no pairing)


**I'd like to think at this point in their universe they all respect and trusted each other, and understand the need for space very well. they just weren't aware. stay woke to others needs kids.**

 **~oOo~**

Peter Parker used to have a lot of breathing room. Be it with him living with only his Aunt May and Uncle Ben, or patrolling New York alone since the beginning. Heck, (because _good_ role models don't curse) even all the way back to his wrestling days (something _no one_ should _ever_ find out about again, under any circumstances). Most things were on his terms. No rules, no needing to care for others.

But ever since the death of Uncle Ben, or the formation of his team (not his decision, something forced onto him) some things were obvious to be changed. And with all the new heroes he's training now, he doesn't get much time to himself anymore (even though his time to himself is spent out in his field trying to save others). Sometimes it even gets hard to breathe...

* * *

On one particularly stressful day, a lot of things would combine that would really suffocate him. 'What could _possibly_ happen in one day in the life of Peter Parker?'. Well, the answer is not unlike the set-up to an overused and terribly shallow plot.

(It could even be compared to what a student had written in their room at 2:17 in the morning instead of doing their homework like they were supposed to)(for 3 days in a row)

A stressful school day for one. During his school day, Harry and MJ were both absent so he couldn't quite hide behind them like usual, as they unwittingly help his disguise. Who would help him fill the role of 'nerdy Peter Parker'TM? Who would help distract him from the problems he still refused to accept? Or much less ask for help from anyone?

He couldn't quite ask his team, it could compromise the character of 'nerdy Peter Parker'TM. Why would Parker make friends with the cool new kids? _How_?

Aside from that little dilemma, all week there had been non-stop crime fighting against many foes and truckload of training with the Shield Academy. This caused much of his homework and class projects to begin piling up. And _because_ _of_ _this_ , sleep had been hard to come by recently, so add sleep deprivation to the list. Annoyingly, when he became sleep deprived, he can't quite control his powers quite as well, meaning he has to use even more of his time, energy, and concentration trying not to rip doors from their hinges or break any tables (again), exhausting and irritating him even further.

And the final piece to this terrible headache-inducing puzzle was that his team and all trainees were both _incredibly_ and _irritatingly_ loud that day.

All that plus is regular(?) heightened senses combined until a weird sort of sensory overload had been achieved (and not the kind where he angsts over everything like other occasions, but one that had a special place in his heart, because it was quite frequent some days. The kind where the sounds of dinner plates clinking can be incredibly irritating).

But back to the point, his terrible day. Maybe the universe would be kind and merciful to him.

...Peter immediately hoped the universe had not heard because he was pretty sure he'd just jinxed it.

He was making his way through the cold metallic halls of the helicarrier, on his way to join his friends. He had a small ache on his left temple, but he powered through. he'd gone through worse, this was nothing.

As he got closer to the training room, he could hear the chatter of the others coming more distinctly. As he neared, it had gone from a dull babbling to a loud and messy symphony of voices. Amongst it, he could detect squirrel girl talking animatedly to someone, but he was either too out of it and not concentrating hard enough to make out her words, or she was talking too fast for his weary brain to make sense of it all. Just as he was rounding the corner, he heard her declare "I heard that today we're gonna train with unexpected variables in the field like strong sounds."

Too late. So much for the pity of the universe. Sadly for him, this just _happened_ to be the day he and his team were due to fight a crazy new shield machine that severely tested some of them. Specifically those with ears. Even more so those with super hearing.

'Oh joy' Peter internally monologued like a villain, 'is it my VERY lucky day, week, however long this will last. At least until the universe decides to finally give me a break'.

If this kept up (the monologuing and bad luck) he had very little doubt that he'd become a villain himself. Or at the very least go crazy.

* * *

Apparently, it was more of the team testing out the machine for the scientists at shield rather than actual training for themselves. This left peter a tad miffed. Because it was sound based, Agent Venom had opted to sit this one out.

It was a large imposing machine. It was painted neon orange for some reason. And covered in a lot of reflective surfaces, blinding the attacker.

"What person in their right minds decides to build this thing?" Peter asked. "'Hey Jim you know what? Let's build an annoying ' **BEEP BEEP BEEP'** machine this time around as a prank' 'Sure thing Issac that sounds like a great idea! Hey, what if we get some teenagers to test it out too?' 'You know what Jim you're a genius! Let's paint it an annoyingly bright color too!' 'Let's cover it in glitter, were so clever Isaac!'"

For the entire duration of time that he talked about the much disliked Jim and Isaac, he was jumping from the floor to the walls, landing kick after kick to the robots supposed weak spots. Quite aggressively to be honest. The team had never seen him this serious and vindictive about simple training.

"Spidey you need to calm down you're getting so irritated over nothing right now. concentrate on the task at hand". It was Powerman who'd said this. But Peter, it was like he was using his selective hearing again. He tried again, "The sooner this thing is defeated the faster this annoying 'beep beep beep' the noise stops."

Just then, Dagger, jumping out of Cloaks portal threw one of her weapons and struck the machine in its designated weak points (which were a slightly different more annoying shade of neon orange). This knocked the machine back a couple of centimeters.

The machine froze. The noise had stopped. There was a tense silence.

And then another sound came up. _A vuvuzela._ Everyone cried out. (except Flash who pumped his fists the observation room, because sports)

"'Hey Issac you know what would be funny? If every time they take down our perfect machine a new noise comes up!' 'Jim you're a genius!"

As the others could tell, Peter was not very amused at this point. His tone left little to the imagination as to how much he disliked 'Jim and Isaac the Shield scientist prankster team'.

Personally, Ava was getting a bit tired of his attitude. From across the room, she called out, "Peter chill, it's just a noise."

"Ya webs," Nova called out "even I'm not complaining as much!"

At this point, Peters' head was throbbing painfully. He felt horribly nauseous, and his vision was slowly failing on him. This had only happened once before when he had forgotten his glasses the day of a school assembly. Back before he got his powers and his vision was fixed, so he actually needed them. If he had to guess what happened, he'd probably just strained his vision so hard that his brain though he had been poisoned. It wouldn't the first time. The school cafeteria lunches were a nightmare. Currently, his vision was slowly creating black splotches wherever he looked.

In a (pretty common and very predictable) move that lacked interest for his self-preservation, Peter decided it was a good idea to get close to the still standing machine. Slowly he crouched close to the machine to poke it.

"Do _not_ touch the machine Peter," he heard.

at least his ears were clearing up

"Hey, Peter maybe you should move away who knows what this thing does" Ava yelled from across the room. This was probably wise.

He quickly rose to his feet making himself dizzy again, but just as his back was turned to leave, the machine opened up. And pulled out some hammers. Giant, heavy, painful hammers as Peter would soon to learn.

"WHAT THE HECK?! WEBS GET OUT OF THE WAY!"

Peter had been so busy trying to regain his balance, that he and his sad, tired, miserable self, had not managed to escape.

Peter felt his Spidey-sense go off. He quickly turned around only to feel something painful connect to his side and throw him back. With a loud and audible **THUD** **,** he hit a wall and fell to the floor. With the breath knocked out of his lungs, he was content to just lay there. as he caught his breath. 'This is nice I guess' he conceded.

As he lay on the floor, he could feel the vibrations of the steps people took. Every thud that hit. He didn't like it. He was vaguely aware of the 2 people hovering above him. When he looked up Peter noticed one of them spoke in a very soft and distant voice, like talking through a thunderstorm. He couldn't quite see them.

"Ya he's right, are you sure you're ok?" Miles' voice broke in, slightly more clear than the other persons, concern lightly trimming his words.

He needed to get up, he couldn't give up now. He was so close to the end of the day. A little too quickly, he responded with "I'm fine" before deciding it was a good idea to jump up.

Just as he tried to regain his balance and fight off their concern, the three of them heard the loud sports instrument slowly die out. Someone had disabled the machine again and the noise had stopped, and everyone waited tensely.

Suddenly there was flashing lights. **whoooOOOOOP whoooOOOOOP whoooOOOOOP.** Peter jumped, startled.

Then the machine pulled out dodgeballs.

Peter screamed.

* * *

They had been practicing in a high-stress environment. Peter still hadn't recovered from his headache, and though he still couldn't quite see, it was getting better. Overall this was a plus. After carefully weighing his options, he decided not to tell anyone, feeling that it didn't matter. To navigate, he though to open up his super hearing again and avoided crashing by using his spidey-sense. A mistake.

He'd had the very annoying training thing plus all his other problems, and _spectacularly_ Peter had survived it. Just a couple more hours until the day was over and he could call it a day. He still had his entire costume on, mask and all. Maybe he would have left right away to do some patrolling first. But as part of the training, they decided to do a "dumb sound cool down" as Nova had so helpfully put it. Kinda like running a cooldown lap after jogging a mile.

Peter himself had made it there last being at the back of the group so he wouldn't bump into too many people. If he had, he'd blamed it on being tired.

So that's why the entire team currently sat in a circle and closed their eyes. Well, close enough to a circle. Some people were touching knees, while others were farther out of the ring than necessary. Specifically Scarlet Spider. And Rhino, but that was for size. They began by sitting in a quiet circle to breathe slowly, inhaling for 5 counts, holding for 5, and releasing for 10 as a calming exercise. Surprisingly it led by Flash, Agent Venom, the reckless one.

"Wait a minute why is Flash leading this? Why does he know about this?"

Excitedly, he began, "Our football coach had us do this after training and every game!" With a smile on his face, he excitedly continued, "I heard the cheerleaders did the same thing so that proves it works! Ya, that's science right?"

For the most part, everyone was content to just have a chance to breathe and relax. Rest their bodies and minds after such an _interesting_ work out they'd been given that day. And maybe the surprise class that was being given by Flash.

But not whirlwind always got to be moving, Peter 'can't take a break' Benjamin Parker.

Despite the calm atmosphere, Peters mind was racing with what he still needed to do. Always the busy one. He was planning it all out in his head, ideas running around faster than he could process any single one of them. There was so much to do. Like having to spend time making up his homework assignments. Him being there for Aunt May. He had to tune out everything but at the same time be alert in case of any possible danger. He had to lead the team and make them more independent. His ribs were still hurting. There was also having to be there for MJ and Harry, and he needed to pick up groceries which he had forgot until now, and his vision still wasn't clearing up fast enough and he still felt so horribly sick and, and...

Peters thoughts were all over the place, they were overlapping. And he couldn't concentrate on anything. Maybe it could be because the breathing circle was anything but quiet to Peter.

There was the sound of people breathing heavily, some people were even snickering. There was the sound of shifting, and the rustling of costumes, a plastic bag being opened, and _chewing_ \- wait, was someone _eating_ something?! He could definitely smell something strong at least. Or maybe he was overreacting, because last he remembered, unsalted unbuttered popcorn didn't smell so strong. Or sound so loud. _Who even ate that?_

Normally this would be fine, in fact, he might even be the one eating something to annoy the others, but the sound of _everything_ was grating on his ears. Out of all of them (even Nova), he was the first to crack.

"Ok, that's it. I'm done. I'm gonna just, leave". He can't let the team see him like this. He couldn't even see _them_.

As he's getting up, despite being partially temporarily blind he can literally _feel_ the concerned glances.

"Hey, Webs are you alright?" concern evident in Lukes' voice.

"You haven't been so hot today" He heard Squirrel Girl shift her weight.

"Do you need medical?" A slight step forward from Amadeus Cho.

Despite their concern, their noise only made things more difficult for Peter. And unfortunately for Peter, through all their concern for him, they were getting closer and closer to him. It wasn't quite suffocating, but it was really annoying. At least he could see them, blurry, but there now.

Thinking quickly, he jumped up and landed with his back facing the wall, a fair distance away. "Ok guys stop crowding me! I swear I'm fine, just keep at least an arm's length away from me and don't bubble around me."

"But Peter you have to tell us what's wrong so we can help you. Don't deny you need help right now". He hated when they insisted because they were always right.

Irritably, Peter snapped "I don't have to tell you guys anything". Peter got a sense of clarity back. He sighed, "Look guys- I'm sorry, that wasn't, what I'm trying to say is-" He floundered for a bit before he took a deep breath to compose himself. "Look, I've been having a stressful week. There are so many things I've been doing and I can't keep up with all of it. It's not your fault, it's not my fault, not anyone's fault but the universe. But I'll be fine I swear. I'm sorry for snapping at you guys".

"Ok then Peter just go take a nap, that should clear your head."

Nodding, he zig-zags out of the room. Everyone stays quiet until they're sure he's out of hearing range. His hearing range.

"Miles, Cho, make sure to keep an eye on him."

* * *

While those three are gone, the team has a discussion about him.

"I'm worried about Peter" Cloak.

"Do you think he'll be ok?" Dagger asked.

"He'll be relatively fine. You know him, he needs to freak out every once in a while to feel like everything is ok." Nova commented.

"If that's normal for him, he must freak out a lot more than we see. That can't be healthy. And what did he mean by 'Not anyone's fault but the universe'?"

"It's best not to think about that sometimes. There are things that only make sense to spiders." A snap of the fingers in realization "Like nerdiness and bugs".

"Arachnids" Flash called. They gave him a questioning look, "What? Spider-Man isn't here to defend it so I have to!"

"Great, another one Peter has brainwashed."

* * *

 _Meanwhile from inside the halls somewhere on the helicarrier_

Miles and Cho were still in the halls trailing after Peter, just keeping an eye out for him in case he flips his lid again, or gets lost. Again. It could happen in this condition and place.

"Guys I'm not going to go crazy and run away. I just have a stress headache, that all. Besides, it's too loud outside to run away..." He trailed off, "Right now at least." He winced, and casually looked over his shoulder to see if they had heard the last part. Maybe even with super hearing, hopefully, Miles hadn't heard.

He saw his concerned glance. He'd heard him.

Peter internally groaned. 'Great now they think I'm at least _planning_ to run away. Good job Parker'.

"Whatever, I'm going to keep moving now."

They walked in silence for a bit, everyone too inside their heads. At least it was a comfortable silence, not spoiled by unnecessary talk. Peter was very grateful for that.

Peter looked absolutely exhausted, and he was. His whole being reminded Miles of a walking zombie, or of a student at this point. That fight must have taken more out of him than they thought. Or perhaps it had been Peters acting that led them to believe he was truly ok. He did do that pretty often too, up to the point that they'd needed a meeting titled 'What to look out for in Peter: A guide to making sure if Peter needs medical' to see if they needed to forcibly take him to medical.

Miles and Cho follow him past the sleeping quarters, and past the medical center. If it had been anyone but peter they might have said something, but they wanted to see what he was doing. Most of the time he had a reason. And if not it was funny to watch, as long as he didn't get hurt this time. They follow as Peter leads them through the maze-like mess of training halls, only pointing out helpful landmarks (in case he ever did this again). They might need to know where he was at some point. Eventually, they make it to a secluded end of a hall. It's poorly lit and the only thing there is a dead end and a drinking fountain.

"He must have scouted this place some time ago," Miles commented, whispering to the Iron Spider. They quietly watched him set up some sort of net where the two sides of the wall met the roof. In the corner of a room. At the end of the hall. Was it mentioned this was on the roof? At least it is pretty secluded, they'll give him that.

Worried that Peter might tangle himself in his net, Miles helps him out.

Still helping Peter create his web, Miles says softly as to not bother a working Peter, "hey Iron, you should go tell the others where we are so they don't get worried."

"Roger, I'll be off then."

When Cho gets back to the others, he gives them an update on where Peter and miles are and what they're doing.

At the mention of the giant web Peter and Miles are building, some of them decided to go see. Others run after them to check on the two arachnids and make sure they won't do anything dangerous. Peter _was_ looking tired, and no one needed a tired Peter again, after what happened last time.

"I wanna see a giant web."

"It's being built by _two_ spiders, that's gotta be a sight to see."

"How much you wanna bet Peter got trapped in his own web?"

"Cho where are they?"

"I am not telling you guys where they are,"

"You just watch to watch them struggle, don't you?" Luke commented.

"...That too" He smiled.

"Come on," Nova whined, "we won't do anything we swear!"

"I'm not telling you where he is"

Just as he finished his statement, Miles was coming back. If it hadn't been for Miles coming back they probably wouldn't have found him. But eventually, they find the place Miles accidentally described despite their prodding. Peter was in a web cocoon that, according to Miles, blocks out sound pretty well. Also light.

A couple of them take a few pictures, before deciding to leave him to rest for a while.

Inside, Peter was content, warm, and disconnected from the world for a bit. He felt safe in his cocoon. He knew nothing would hurt him while he was in there, because if anything even _tried_ to, he had a pretty decent team outside to protect him. They at least owed him that after today. And he knew that they knew.

* * *

 **I love little bro Miles and big bro Spidey dynamics it's my jam. That took longer than I wanted but this is fine. The assembly no glasses thing happened to me actually, and I had to go hope. My vision did actually black out but I made it to the front office all by myself. Nauseous all the way. With a heavy backpack. Up like 4 flights of stairs. And a can-do attitude. Went home and threw up. And all before 3rd period. Fun day.**

 **Anyway, I tried I hope this story was better than the last. I hope to do a spiderman and sleep habits multi-chapter story soon because I have so many headcanons for him it's embarrassing.**

 **I've been gone, no excuse.**

 **(I procrastinated by watching rick steves tour of Europe. New levels achieved)**


End file.
